The Relationship Between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: Executive Summary (Draft)

DRAFT

12. There is no AIDS in Africa. AIDS is nothing more than a new name for old
diseases.
The diseases that have come to be associated with AIDS in Africa --
malnutrition, diarrheal diseases and TB -- have long been severe burdens
there. However, high rates of mortality from these diseases, formerly confined
to the elderly and malnourished, are now common among HIV-infected young
and middle-aged people.
In a recent study in rural Uganda, adolescents and young adults testing positive
for HIV antibodies were 60 times more likely to die during the subsequent twoyear observation period than otherwise similar persons who tested negative. In
a study in Zaire, infants with HIV infection had an 11-fold increased risk of
death from diarrhea compared with uninfected children. Elsewhere in Africa
findings are similar.
CONCLUSION
Despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary, the notion that HIV does not cause AIDS
continues to find a wide audience in the popular press, with potential negative impact on HIVinfected individuals and on public health efforts to control the epidemic:
HIV-infected individuals may be convinced to forego anti-HIV treatments that
can forestall the onset of the serious infections and malignancies of AIDS.
Pregnant HIV-infected women may dismiss the option of taking AZT, which
can reduce the likelihood of transmission of HIV from mother to infant.
People may be dissuaded from being tested for HIV, thereby missing the
opportunity, early in the course of disease, for treatment with drugs to prevent
AIDS-related infections such as PCP. Such prophylactic measures prolong
survival and improve the quality of life of HIV-infected individuals.
Most troubling is the prospect that individuals will discount the threat of HIV
and continue to engage in risky sexual behavior and needle sharing.
If public health messages on AIDS prevention are diluted by the misconception that HIV is not
responsible for AIDS, otherwise preventable cases of HIV infection and AIDS may occur,
adding to the global tragedy of the epidemic.

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